Americans are naming their babies after guns

Country music, burgers, big stuff and guns. We all know what America loves, it's basic stuff. But we didn't think they loved guns quite as much as this.

A survey by US baby name website nameberry.com reveals that more children are being given gun and violence-related names than ever before.

The most popular of all is Gunner - with over 1,500 babies in the US being given the name. If combined with the Swedish Gunnar (meaning "bold warrior"), astonishingly it reaches the top 200 of all boys names. Cannon is in the top 1,000 and we're pretty sure it's not due to an hitherto unseen love for the seventies comedian.

Names given by genuine, real parents to genuine, real babies last year include Arson, Pistol, Rebel, Arrow, Trigger, Shooter, Caliber and Magnum, and even gun manufacturers get in on the act with the likes of sweet little Barrett, Kimber, Ruger, Remington, Wesson, Browning, Benelli and Beretta.

It's not just guns though, other methods of killing are acceptable. The established Lance has been joined by Dagger, Saw, Mace, Blade and Archer for boys, with Sabre and Arrow for girls. Hunter has been in the top 50 for boys for over two decades, and has reached the top 10 in Montana, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Maine, Kentucky and West Virginia.

For those fans of general mayhem, we give you five small boys who were named Danger (although it would have been way cooler if danger had been their middle name), nine called Chaos, and 47 named Rebel.

They'll probably rebel against that name by not being remotely rebellious.

As if you needed reminding, debates over gun controls in America are once again in the news following the horrific on-air shooting of two Virginia TV journalists on 26 August. Still, they say that to fight guns you need more guns, so we're sure these poor kids will help end the misery; their parents are almost certainly pacifists right? Right?

(Image: Shutterstock)